There are more than 3 billion active social media users worldwide, and more and more businesses are recognizing the vast potential social media offers to reach their audiences. According to the State of Social 2018, 96% of marketers use Facebook, 89% use Twitter, 70% use LinkedIn, 70% use Instagram, 33% use Pinterest, and 11% use Snapchat. Having an active social presence should be a priority for your business, but how do you decide which social media platform to focus on?

Are your lead-generation strategies bringing in enough business? According to a 2017 report by HubSpot, 63% of businesses say generating traffic and leads is their biggest marketing challenge. Sound like your business? Try these strategies to get more leads this year.

Is there anything you would improve about your website? If your answer is “I’m not sure,” use these 19 tools to measure your website's performance in various categories. They're all free, and none require you to download software, create an account, or sign up for a free trial.

Early this year, Facebook made significant changes to how posts from Facebook Business pages appear in the News Feed. The biggest change is that Facebook is now prioritizing content from friends and family, and “demoting” public content from businesses that, according to a Facebook post from Mark Zuckerberg, is “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”

When’s the last time you made a purchase based solely on a written description of an item, without seeing at least a picture of it? If you want a particular haircut, are you more likely to try to describe it in detail to your hairdresser, or simply bring a photo to your appointment?

If your small business has a verified Google My Business listing (and it should), you now have a new tool to reach potential local customers with fresh, relevant content about your business. Google Posts, once only available to a small group of organizations, are now available to all small businesses using Google My Business.

Running out of ideas for interesting social media posts? There’s no question social media is an important marketing tool for businesses, but it’s not always easy to come up with something fresh and different to keep your social media audience interested. Give your social media posts a makeover for 2018 with these 7 content categories that are proven to increase shares and conversions.

While celebrities and individuals account for a lot of live video traffic, businesses are also jumping on the live video bandwagon. Not only is live video a great way to reach customers and personalize a business brand, live video gives businesses a low-cost way to increase engagement with their target audience. According to Facebook, users spend triple the amount of time watching live videos compared to prerecorded, and comment 10 times more.

Having the right types of links on your website is one of the best ways to improve your search ranking, boost traffic, establish the authority of your site, and improve the customer experience. Here are the three types of links that are crucial for your website.

The goal of marketing is to drive business, but how do you know how much to spend on marketing to reach your business goals? As with most things, the answer is: it depends. Creating a marketing budget that works for your business depends on several factors, from the overall state of the economy to the specifics of your audience and industry. Here’s what you need to consider.